Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work from miniature painters from around the world. They are of every colour, gender, age and nationality, but all these people have at least two things in common: they love miniatures and they have all taken the Challenge.
This site features the current year's event along with archives of past Challenges.
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Saturday, 2 January 2016

'Rodrigo, get that blasted thing out of my face... Niles! Wait! No, not yet you fool!!'

What we
have here is an early light gun, or more appropriately a heavy
rifled musket, sometimes called a 'Handbuchse'. These tripod mounted guns were usually
used in sieges, presumably to pick off defenders and make a general
nuisance of themselves. I saw one of these weapons on display in Les Invalides in Paris and
marveled at what must have been the bravery of its crew. From looking at the thing the gunners must have been in as much
danger from their gun flying apart as to those they were supposedly shooting at.

These 28mm figures are from both Warlord Games and the now defunct Pro
Gloria Miniatures (Warlord bought the range a few years ago).

I borrowed a Master Gunner from Warlord's Pike & Shotte range and re-purposed him for this vignette as I liked his pose.

I
imagine him as a Spaniard mercenary gunner in Imperial pay who has
dropped by to help his German friends sight their 'silly Teutonic
popgun'.

The
two Landsknecht and the handbuchse are pretty much stock from the kit,
except for a bit of careful bending and re-positioning for the vignette.

As I
just received a bunch of terrain material from Tajima I so thought I'd
indulge myself with an autumnal setting for these boys. I sort of like
it and am thinking I might maintain it as the theme for my Renaissance collection - we'll
see.

Hmm, what does this add up to? Three figures and a idiot crew served weapon equals 25 points.Now, back to getting the Theme Round sorted...

My next submission for the challenge is the start of a WW2 Soviet army. Completed so far are 40 infantry figures from the Warlord plastic Box set and 3 tanks from Trenchworx (2 T-34's and one BT-7)

To be honest the Warlord figures are so-so and I'd have a hard time recommending them as assembly was more difficult than it should be and there was a lot of flashing to clean up. These troops are painted using 1942 uniform colors and equipment.

The Trenchworx tanks are simply superb models and I highly recommend them. I do need to find some crew figures for them and add some stowage to the tanks and will do so shortly.Next up for the Soviets will be some support weapons and maybe some other vehicle options. I also have a box of the Warlord "Siberian Veterans" to add into the mix also.The tally for this submission comes to 245 points (40 infantry figures and 3 tanks).

Wow, somebody has been busy! That is an amazing amount of work Miles. I agree with your assessment of the Trenchworx vehicles. The WWI Kickstarter set that I received exhibited excellent quality. With this entry you've passed Kyle in most points to-date. I get a sense that we may witness a Battle Royale over the next few months. A Hobby Geek Cage-Match! Awesome.

When my Italian Wars figures have fought on the table for the first time, they were missing command stands. So I thought I would fix this deficit and have finished Piero da Montefeltro. I have based this figure on the historical Frederico da Montefeltro, who was the very model of a modern major general in the 15th century.

This believe it or not is his good side.

You may not know the name, but I bet you know his face as he possessed one of the most well know noses in art history. The beak was not a natural event but resulted from a jousting accident, which cost him an eye and left him permanently disfigured. Frederick then had the bridge of his nose surgically removed to improve his field of vision both on the battle field and to spot potential assassins. (Yeah, hack off half my nose so that I can see the bastards trying to kill me).

Frederico predates the Italian Wars and I couldn't bring myself to intentional disfigure a Perry figure, so I opted for a fictional scion of the Montefeltri (according to Michael Mallet the official plural of Montefeltro). The normal bastard son option doesn't appear to hold as Frederico was supposedly exceedingly faithful to his Sforza bride (obviously he liked his women fiesty), so I am assuming Piero is a nephew, cousin or similar.

The figure comes from the Perry Miniatures Italian Mounted Command stand. I have added a stradiot standard bearer, on the assumption that Piero spent time in Venetian pay, from the Perry Stradiot command pack. The flag is home printed based on a Montefeltro banner, and the Stradiot's shield is hand painted based on historical examples (dated back to Thracian times). The figures were a joy to paint and I am quite happy with the results.

Ah, that is an excellent subject for a command stand. I particularly like that he has a Stradiot standard bearer (a 'tourist' from the Balkans, no doubt) to reinforce his mercenary background. I look forward to trying to make him change sides in our future Pike & Shotte games (though that might be a challenge knowing his history of fidelity)!

There is a nice little story about these miniatures. Around
18 months ago I went in a demonstration game at a convention called Winter Con
in Canberra Australia. I had a turn at a
game called Warmachine and I thought “Wow I like the mechanics, the miniatures
are nice and the chaps running the demo seem to know what they are doing. Alas
I don’t really need another game.” Well a couple of weeks later I get an email
saying that I had won the boxed set of Warmachine.

Oh no this sounds like a slippery slope and sure enough.

What you see before you are my latest absolutely not needed
purchases of Warmachine Khador miniatures, a solo known as a Manhunter
(actually a Christmas present from my mother in law, bless her), a command set
for the Winter Guard, two Rocketeer attachments and a full unit of 10 troopers of
Winter Guard split into units of 5 for photographic ease.

Manhunter

Command

Rocketeers

Winter Guard

I think this nets me 5 points X 15 thus 75 points.

Oh, and no, I have not played a game of it yet but plan on
making 35 points for two of the forces that came in the boxed game and getting
a couple of games in with these. I am only 3 points short for the Khador force
but around 12 points short for the Menoth force. For those not familiar with
the game please look it up it looks like fun.

First, welcome aboard Chris! It's great to have a new victim, er, participant for the Challenge!

You've done beautiful work on these figures. I really like their uniforms with the red against the dark blue-grey - very sharp. I'm not familiar with the game but I know it's quite popular around these parts, especially with those who wanted to move away from 40K but still wanted to stay within a Sci-Fi setting.

These are worth 75 points for your debut on the Challenge roster. Again, welcome to the fun Chris!

8 More Napoleonic British Naval figures in 28mm scale. These figures are from Brigade games and are form a British Landing Party.

I did remove the metal base from the figures to make them look better on the "ship-deck" base and I think they came out nicely. There were a few surgical mishaps and 4 of the fellow are sporting feet made of Greenstuff.

These figures will be used for shop-based Marines and for landing parties in specific scenarios. I need to order up some more crew for the scenario I'm planning at Historicon.

Next up are 29 Native American infantry figures and one mounted. These figures are also in 28mm scale and come from the Perry American War of Independence line. Native American allies played important roles in both the AWI and War of 1812. One of the figures (second row, second from the left) is meant to represent the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who was a key British ally and was able to unite multiple tribes to support the British cause. His death at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario was a huge blow.

I really enjoyed painting these figures up as there is a good deal of creative license. The skin tone is a 50/50 mix of vallejo medium flesh and Vallejo rust and I think it came out really well.

The Perry figures are a joy to paint - yes I'm a bit of a Perry fan-boy.

A close up of some of the war paint. These were so much fun to paint up I suspect you'll see another batch before this challenge is done!Lets see, the tally is 37 infantry figures snd one mounted, which works out to 195 points for this entry.

Great work Miles! These look brilliant, especially those Native American warriors.

As a suggestion, please provide us some closer shots of your work, or perhaps crop you photos down a bit so the more optically challenged amongst us can enjoy them better. :)

Can you give us a hint on what your Historicon scenario is, or is it meant to be a surprise for the convention attendees?

The Reidy Machine advances relentlessly with another 195 points in the bag. Amazing stuff Miles - Keep up the Steam!

It is a little known fact that 'Fifty Shades of Grey' was originally set in Scotland during the English Civil Wars.

After a break painting gladiators, my next entry continues the 6mm ECW project with another 5 units of Covenanter cavalry. Following Ian's advice, I gave these a little wash. I used the Vallejo sepia wash (because I happened to have some), but diluted it further so that it didn't darken the figures too much.

"Kurt's has got this Challenge thing going on!" Garbles Rae the Master ! It is partially the beard that make him hard to understand, but mostly the Grog. His diction is also shocking and the screeching monkey voice of Posti who Rae happens to be carrying is not making it any easier to hear. Rae would say that that he does all the heavy lifting and that Posti just goes along for the ride. I will let you decide if that is right ."I Know Kurt is challenged what are you on about?" Frank spueaks out as he tries to hide closer to the bar, the ale and the pork scratching's. Yum Yum!. Which all agree is the best place to be. But Frank and Rae have a special relationship even when they are on different islands let alone on different boats. The other crew had commented on it before but only in Private and not to their faces for fear of reprisals. Personally I don't know what "Omo-erotic " Means and I am sure I don't want it explained. Big Twee used the term, not me!Rae continues. "I said Kurt is running a challenge again this year!"﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

FranK

"That's up in the FROZEN North!" Seaman Millsie half chokes on his frothy southern brew he likes ales that are all head and no body. "Running you say?" The Southern accent is thick and slurry as we all know those on the southern most Island do nothing but drink weak beverages and whinge about the true nations sporting prowess. "I aint running no where!" Seaman Millie carries on. "Of course you aint running! You Southerners are only good at the sit down sports!" Rae was quick of the mark with the comeback. "Fook off!" The Monkey spat back always happy to swear at Rae even if he had not been the target of any jibe!

Big Twee the Short arse!

"You Fook off you piece of Shite!" Rae squeezes the monkey as he answers him. "You may have a tricorn on but your eyes are still brown because you are full of Shite!" The Monkey Posti chatters on and on and to be honest while amusing I do fade out of hearing focus. "Yeah King Kurt lives in the frozen north. Even more North of Frostgrave! And Frostgrave is cold enough!" Four eyed Klint is slumpt in the corner drowsy with beer, his eyebrow twitches and a little bit of drool escapes his mouth but he knows far batter than to speak. But Big Twee, the shortest of the dwarfs Loudly slurs "I aint going eiver! I will go to Frost grave, but not the frozen frozen North!" The short arse then changes the subject to gold and we all listen. He is the "Rich Reject after all and knows all about gold treasure and that sort of thing. "Yeah shipmates there is treasure in Frostgrave so that is where we should go. Maybe stop In on King Kurt afterwards and see if he has any provisions we can eat." Like all rejects matters of the stomach were always of interest to all of us except the monkey.﻿﻿﻿

Four eyed Klint

"Right that's settled then we all go to Frostgrave's Cold Harbour and then on to the Frozen North to see King Kurt. Maybe we can get some treasure from him as well!" Rae takes charge even if only leading through mutual agreement as we all swig more and belch, eat pork scratchings and fart (we all look at Posti when that happens but we are all secretly blaming someone else!). "The 'Neptune's Harlot' "Our ship although the monkey calls it a shed but we all call him a shit so it's fair! "The Harlot's stocked and ready to sail and we my hearties, are looking for treasure or points at the very least!"The names have been changed to protect the innocent! (Innocent, who am I kidding!)

All the figures are 28mm Black Scorpion Miniatures and cast in resin some of the details are a little soft but would have been crisp in metal. Somewhere tucked away I have 4 more but at this juncture in time I can't find them so let me know if you want to appear in part 2 should I find them. I hope no offence has been taken by anyone as it was not at all intended and if it has please feel free to take any revenge on Rae! Not Klint, Klint is not guilty at all its is all Rae's fault! Remember Big boys done it and run away. Yes Blame Rae, 'cos he is to blame, honest! Would I lie to you?

This is wonderfully cracked Clint! I for one would like to see a Part 2 if you find the other castings. All of them are great but I think my favourite is FranK. He has a certain maniacal glint that I can appreciate. Hmm, I wonder what sort of reprobate this King Kurt of the Frozen North must be? I guess we'll find out in a future chapter, eh?

My first submission to the challenge in the form of 28mm Almoravid Black Guard based for Impetus. I decided having a Black Guard unit in my Almoravid army was a must as
they are both elite and look quite intimidating and if you have seen El
Cid they give the quintessential Almoravid look. If anyone has followed my blog then they will know I've had a long running El Cid project where most of Christian Spanish army is finished and I've now began the Almoravids. I've finished a regular Berber unit and now decided to add the Black Guard.

I decided to equip the whole regiment with Hippo shields which is
made from hippopotamus hides which looks either dark brownish or greyish
depending on how it is cured. I prefer the brown and went with that. I
feel the darker shields combined with the black clothes gives the unit
an even more sinister and intimidating look. In addition to the black
clothes the uniformed shields will further help differentiate them from
the wooden ones carried by the rest of the Almoravids and mark them out
as an elite unit within the army.

The figures
themselves are a mix of Artizan and Gripping beast. I made a few
modifications by adding veils to some of the figures that didn't have
them to keep uniformity. One would think all black would paint up fast,
but actually it didn't as I had to use several layers of grey adding
gradually to get the effect I wanted thus taking longer then
anticipated. The banners were downloaded then hand painted by myself.

With 24 figures at 28mm this should give me 120 points towards my challenge with Nick and the 'Bronze to Steel' challenge in addition to the Analogue Challenge itself.

Simply stunning work Christopher! I love how you've done their black clothing and the hippo hides are brilliant. This unit will give you a base of 120 points but I'm adding a few more for the work on the shields and banner. It's great to have you on the roster Christopher!

After completing the LMG teams of my FJ platoon, turn this week for the rifle sections. I completed six models over the last week (which is not bad considering my low speed) and a couple of NCOs.

As with the LMGs models, I have combined a mix of camouflage smocks and Luftwaffe blue jackets. Trousers wore by these units were increasingly the regular army model in field grey as the war moves towards its end, although some blue colour were still in use. All models are 28mm metal Warlords.

I painted a couple of NCOs (section leaders or "junior leaders" in Chain of Command jargon). To distinguish from the rank and file, I chose models armed with the MP 40 SMG and were based on square bases instead of the standard rounds that I use in my units.

This should add 40 points to my scoring this week.

Lovely work Benito! You have been cracking on, haven't you? Excellent stuff. Similar to your other figures, I like the muted camouflage and the mix of uniform elements. It keeps the squads varied and visually interesting.

Lately a certain Star Wars mania took possession of home and family. Thus it suggested itself to start the Painting Challenge with a couple of Star Wars miniatures namely more playing pieces for Imperial Assault:

Actually very nice figures but somehow not the quality we are used to have from those top-notch 28mm figures by Perr, Front Rank, Foundry, Empress and other suppliers of metal miniatures. Some pieces could be more detailed and some parts are kept rather easy. Nevertheless they represent the figures from the Star Wars universe very well and were fun to paint. This week I prepared three lots of figures for our Wesdnesday night Imperial Assault session:

Firstly three probe droids. Those little bastards are always useful to scout the way for the stormtroopers. Within the game they proved rather handy and dangerous. As for painting I stayed very simple. Just a couple of grey tones over black primer. Really the quick and dirty kind of miniatures. For gaming reasons I kept the bases simple as well. Some light drybrushing and a colour marking to differentiate different squads in game.

Two sets of Imperial Red Guardsmen. In the game they serve in pairs and thus I prepared two with a red and two with blue colour markings. A pretty simple paintjob as well. Black primer, three layers of different red tones and then some darktone Armypainter Quickshade.

Highlight in a special sense was the dark lord of the Sith himself: Darth Vader.

A figure which seemed rather easy to paint but black is always special somehow. Of course I didn't want to turn him too greyish and therefore I chose to hold back with highlighting as much as possible. Only some dark and medium grey drybrushing on the cloak and some more efforts on the body armour. The lightsaber and the control panels of the Vader's suit were nice details and meant a nice diversion. The base is once again kept slate grey with some gentle drybrushing in medium and light grey.That's it for now and I'll have to focus on the 'Nostalgia' bonus round. But during the next weeks there are a couple of more Imperial Assault figures to paint.

Ahh, welcome aboard Stefan! It's great to see you among us again this year.These are excellent. We've been playing this game quite a bit and I've seen many of these figures close up and agree with your assessment. That being said you've done a fantastic job on these icons of the Imperium. I really like the lush red you've given the Guardsmen and Vader's light sabre really has a menacing glow about it.

This entry is a mixed bag of figures as a number of figures are still drying, or need to be repaired after a varnish fail... so not quite what I wanted to have done this week... but it does give Aidan (and anyone else) a chance to catch up on the Dungeon Saga side challenge.

First up we have the banshee from DS, which leaves one of the core set villains left to paint and 6 armoured undead. The banshee is quite a nice sculpt, with the exception of blobby hands and will see a lot of use in various game systems (including Frostgrave).

As a change, I decided to try some of the Dungeon Saga demons. These guys are the same size as the undead trolls and act as their equivalent in the demonic campaign. Again, very nice models to paint, though some of the seams are tricky to clean off as the plastic is slightly bendy. If the Kings of War ones are as nicely sculpted, they should be great models... not that I need any more of them. They will also be nice large size demons for Frostgrave. These guys suffered from a partial varnish fail. You can see the white marbling on the back of the middle demon; though in this case it adds to the texture rather than obscuring detail; so not so much a fail as an unexpected detailing!

Last and definitely least are two of the ghosts from Shadows of Brimstone. These figures are some of the worst I've had the misfortune to work with. The detail is shockingly soft, which makes them ugly lumps... so a quick ghost paintjob was done at the same time as the DS banshee to get them out of the way. There are two more around somewhere that will turn up later when I find them. Scale wise they are only useful in Shadows of Brimstone as they are 1/48 (ish), which makes them really tall when compared to any other Old West figures that I have.

Lovely work Paul! The demons are great but I have to say I really like your undead. I know you've probably mentioned it before but what do you use as your colours for these? They look wonderfully ethereal.

I have a suspicion that those demons are around 40mm so I'll score them as such. 36 points total. Well done!